Orienteering race 3:06:50 [5] 12.81 km (14:35 / km) +230m 13:23 / km
weight:83kg shoes: 200803 NB MT800
While my performance at this meet was my best at an A-meet, my long race featured a catastrophic error from which I didn't recover. I was tired from the previous races, and my muscles were very sore, which may have contributed to my bad decision. I wasn't moving that quickly, and I had a few bobbles on early controls - a few minutes at 4, for instance. However, I was satisfied with my run given the wear on my body and the difficult footing and swamps to negotiate.
I fundamentally misunderstood the large swamp crossed by the major trail in the middle of the map. There was a parallel, narrower stream a few hundred meters to the south, and for whatever reason, when looking at the map, I treated them as the same feature. En route to 10, I meant to attack after I ran south of the narrow stream, but completely repositioned myself in my head and attacked early - after passing the swamp band. This really confused me, but I did eventually find the control after some confusion. However, I didn't take the time to figure out what was the source of my problem.
Controls 11 through 13 went very well, but on the way to 14, I made the same error, meaning to attack after the narrow stream but instead attacking after wide swamp band. This was completely wrong; I had planned to follow the water feature to 14, but following the edge of the lake north of the wide swamp band lead me back to the major trail. This was my opportunity to correct my error, but I figured I had accidentally turned around and charged into the vegetation on the northeast edge of the lake. I then idiotically followed the edge of the lake for several hundred meters - about a kilometer away from my control. I realized I was in trouble some time later when I saw a house - which was not on the map. I was increasingly frustrated with this problem; I saw a field on a ridge to the north which I thought could be the field to the west of 14. I ran to it and eventually realized I was not where I thought I was. Moving east to relocate on the trail, I saw Joseph Huberman walking Presto near the fire station to the northeast of the start - where the parking was.
I can't describe the shock at seeing Joseph effectively, but I realized that I was both off the map and over 2 kilometers from my control. I decided to go to the control anyway (even though I had wasted about an hour in total) to more accurately figure out my error. I would have finished the course, but I knew the Hubermans were waiting for me before the could start the long drive back to Boston, so I skipped controls 17-20, which were in the same area as controls 11-13.
I'm glad I understand my mistake, but this is easily the largest navigational error I have ever made. It seems appropriate that I would attain so many superlatives at a single meet - my personal best sprint, personal best middle, and personal best catastrophic error.